As 2016 comes to a close, Burnaby’s mayor is touting the growth in the last year as a major accomplishment in the city.
At Monday’s council meeting, Mayor Derek Corrigan offered his year-end address that focused primarily on housing and development.
At $679 million in building permits issued so far this year, he noted the city is keeping pace with last year’s record amount of construction.
But he also used the 15-minute address to answer to some of the critics of the city’s handling on the issue of housing affordability.
“While we’ve welcomed all this development, we’ve also consistently and aggressively focused on doing everything we can as a city to ensure Burnaby citizens have access to affordable housing,” he said, adding that includes acquiring more than $42 million in the city’s community benefit bonus housing fund and using more than $2 million from the fund to support the development of 276 units of non-profit housing in the city.
Corrigan also noted an increase in the number of rental units in the approval process which includes seniors housing and other non-market housing.
His list included 90 replacement and 91 new family and seniors housing units for Cedar Place, 122 non-markets units under construction at George Derby, 11 units of non-market rental housing on Hastings Street, 145 units of seniors’ rental housing at Fair Haven on Rumble Street, a new application in Metrotown for a mixed-market and non-market project on Beresford and Sussex with 80 to 120 units, 57 units of non-market special needs and seniors housing in two projects on Canada Way and a new non-market seniors’ housing and care facility proposal on Mary Avenue in Edmonds.
The mayor also pointed out the interest in the development of purpose-built rental housing, with 1,407 units across the city undergoing rezoning or construction.
“At every turn, we have encouraged the federal and provincial governments to work with us to create housing solutions,” he said. “Because council is determined to ensure that the critically important issue of affordable housing is addressed in a meaningful and sustainable way, we’ll continue to lobby the federal and provincial governments both to fulfill their mandates and to follow through on their recent commitments – to work with us to address this issue appropriately.”
In the past year, the issue of affordable housing has been front and centre, with several protests organized by housing advocates opposed to the development plans for Metrotown and the demolition of older rental units in the area for larger highrises.
Besides housing, Corrigan touched on the city’s finances, pointing out Burnaby’s investment portfolio averaged $930 million in the year, which will provide more than $43 million to city revenues.
To read the mayor’s entire statement, go to the City of Burnaby website at www.burnaby.ca.
